The Stirling Connection (v1.2)

brightknight_216 1

Overall, I felt this deck play more like a Shaper as it requires the player to take time to build his or her rig with "Connection" resources. It may not have the aggressiveness seen in most of the Criminal identity or even with Kate Datasucker and Chaos Theory Event build such as Chaos Thievery introduced by PeekaySK.

The key to this deck is to put down as many Connection Resources (there are total of 13 Connection Resources that can be played, minus one additional copy of Kati Jones since it is unique) and then later play Calling in Favors to gain big money.

I don't think this deck is of tournament material especially (if the players need to allow the Corp to score agenda first before Stirling's ability get to activate) but I believe it is solid enough for casual play.

As with most Runner decks that focus more on building the rig first, The Stirling Connection will have problem dealing with Fast Advance corp decks especially from NBN with its Astrochain. I personally think when playing against Fast Advance deck is to just forget about Stirling's power can prevent the corp from scoring first.

Data Dealer I can see the potential of Data Dealer to be useful in Stirling deck if he wants to have a lower agenda score than the Corp but would probably suggest to only use it on the 1 pointer agenda.

Even if it is not used, it can help provide an additional credit for Calling in Favour. Furthermore, Data Dealer does not require any credit to install.

Tri-Maf Contact I am apprehensive of having more than one copy of this card. One reason, you can only use it once per turn. Second reason, with more than 1 copy, the other will most probably become "dead" card. Third reason, I don't like idea of having to thrash Tri-Maf from my grip or to be snipe by the Corp as a result of some damage taken.

Fall Guy The use of Fall is mostly to protect Professional Contact and also Kati Jones from being thrashed. I don't think I would likely to thrash it to gain 2 credit.

Compromised Employee and Forged Activation I think Forged Activation combo well with Compromise Employee. I can instead of running forced the Corp to rez its Ice and then gain credit from Compromised Employee.

No Emergency Shutdown I am still unsure about this. It can be argued that this may synergise well with Compromised Employee by forcing the Corp to derez its Ice after running the HQ and then rez it again to activate the credit gain ability of Compromised Employee. At this moment, my apprehension of not putting them in is due to the card limit. Will have to think later what card I can take out to put Emergency Shutdown in to see how it plays out.

Sneakdoor Beta I have been mulling the limitations of this deck without Sneakdoor Beta. Without it, this deck cannot put pressure on three of the Corp's central server. Also, it may act as a surprise to the Corp player because they may often think that Sneakdoor Beta is mostly played by Gabe. Also, the Corp is less likely to defend the Archive especially they don't see Datasucker in play.

Decoy instead of Plascrete I opt to put in Decoy as an answer to Scorched Earth threat instead of using Plascrete Carapace in order to have more connection card in play.

No Console I am undecided whether to put a console in but if I do, I would most probably have 1 Desperado and not multiple copy. I need room for my Dyson Mem Chip so it can activate Underworld Contact.

I don't really like Logos, the new Criminal console from Honor and Profit. If Logos came out late, the Corp will already score most of the agenda for the Runner to reap any benefit from Logos. However, a friend of mine argued that to get Logos out early, put in 3 copy. True, but in comparison to Desperado, Logos is much more expensive and, in my personal opinion, don't offer much utility value.

E3 Feedback I put in this card is just to surprise the HB player. Currently many of them do not expect Runner to pack this in (especially when my friend have Heimdal 1.0, Heimdal 2.0, and Januse as their Ice). But if I need to take out a card to cut down to 45, I would probably remove E3.

I hope you all like this deck and will welcome any comment that come with it. Thanks.

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